ck to the settlement as his
peace-offering for the negligence which had resulted in the loss of the
other four. For this madness the refractory convict had been condemned
to the solitude of the Grummet Rock.

In that dismal hermitage, his mind, preying on itself, had become
disordered. He saw visions and dreamt dreams. He would lie for hours
motionless, staring at the sun or the sea. He held converse with
imaginary beings. He enacted the scene with his mother over again. He
harangued the rocks, and called upon the stones about him to witness his
innocence and his sacrifice. He was visited by the phantoms of his early
friends, and sometimes thought his present life a dream. Whenever he
awoke, however, he was commanded by a voice within himself to leap into
the surges which washed the walls of his prison, and to dream these sad
dreams no more.

In the midst of this lethargy of body and brain, the unusual occurrences
along the shore of the settlement roused in him a still fiercer hatred
of life. He saw in them something incomprehensible and terrible, and
read in them threats of an increase of misery. Had he known that the
Ladybird was preparing for sea, and that it had been already decided to
fetch him from the Rock and iron him with the rest for safe passage to
Hobart Town, he might have paused; but he knew nothing, save that the
burden of life was insupportable, and that the time had come for him to
be rid of it.

In the meantime, the settlement was in a fever of excitement. In less
than three weeks from the announcement made by Vickers, all had been got
ready. The Commandant had finally arranged with Frere as to his course
of action. He would himself accompany the Ladybird with the main body.
His wife and daughter were to remain until the sailing of the Osprey,
which Mr. Frere--charged with the task of final destruction--was to
bring up as soon as possible. "I will leave you a corporal's guard, and
ten prisoners as a crew," Vickers said. "You can work her easily
with that number." To which Frere, smiling at Mrs. Vickers in a
self-satisfied way, had replied that he could do with five prisoners if
necessary, for he knew how to get double work out of the lazy dogs.

Among the incidents which took place during the breaking up was one
which it is necessary to chronicle. Near Philip's Island, on the north
side of the harbour, is situated Coal Head, where a party had been
lately at work. This party, hastily withdrawn by Vi